What’s the Truth About Social Media Marketing Today?

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the truth about social media marketing

Social media is absolutely everywhere. Most of the traditional ads on television and the papers even include hashtags.

Consumers these days can directly communicate with companies through tweets and companies can now reach their clientele this way as well. In Facebook, users are not limited to young people. More and more users are aged 65 and older.

However, social media marketing is not as easy as just publishing posts on Facebook. Many businesses are putting a serious effort into their social media strategies without clearly understanding how it works and how it can work best for them.

But how does it work?

Here is the truth about social media marketing; seven truths that you need to know:

The truth about social media marketing: you have to be patient

you have to be patient

The first truth is that you won’t see results immediately. You may post too much or too little, but no one seems to care.

But have you thought about why they would bother to care in the first place?

In the early phases of your social media marketing, you shouldn’t expect immediate results. Social media marketing is not a fast track to higher sales.

You have to build a community

you have to build a community

While waiting for the success of your efforts, build an online community. This ought to be your ultimate goal because you will get to connect more with your clientele and build trust. This the truth about social media marketing, number two.

In your community, share valuable content, participate in the discussion and don’t forget to reply to queries.

What this will do for your business is that you will begin to build credibility and greater engagement with your consumers. You will start to notice that your number of followers and the number of likes and shares on your posts are growing, and eventually, your sales, too.

Don’t get stingy on spending for targeted paid ads. It will pay off eventually. You are actually cutting the cost of your marketing strategies if you invest in social media marketing.

If you think about it, you’ll still be spending a lot less than conventional marketing. Social media marketing is one of the cheapest ways to reach your target audience costing you around $3,000 to $20,000 per month compared to a 30-second TV ad at $100,000. Now that’s a lot of savings!

You Will Make Mistakes

you will make mistakes

It’s a tough truth, but since anyone can publish a post with one click, it is easier to make mistakes in social media. Here are some ways you can prevent this from happening.

Review and proofread your posts before clicking “Publish.”

Do research about the meanings behinds the trending hashtags before using them.

If you do make a mistake, apologize immediately and correct that mistake.

You have to know your clientele

you have to know your clientele

To be able to formulate an effective strategy in social media marketing, you have to know who your target audiences are. This is why there’s no use in copying another company’s techniques because surely, their customers and yours are different. And that’s a good thing.

That means you can focus on learning more about your customers and how to better reach them. In Entrepreneur’s article, “10 Laws of Social Media Marketing,” success with social media and content marketing requires more listening and less talking.

You have to focus on the followers you already have

you have to focus on the followers you already have

Don’t worry about the followers that are not yet following you. Focus on the ones you already have; they are your community.

Again, it is important to engage with these followers. Reach out to them and be consistent in responding to their questions or messages.

According to Forbes’ article on “Top Ten Benefits of Social Media Marketing,” brands who engage in social media enjoy higher loyalty from their customers. It is important that they know that when they do reach out to your company, their words won’t just fall on deaf ears.

You have to be original

you have to be original

Invest in creating original content. Original content is a magnet that can attract new leads and improve your sales. Nothing can be truer.

Content can be articles, webinars or videos, among many things. After getting to know your clientele, it will be easier for you to create content that you know will be useful to them.

Takeaway

the truth about social media marketing

Social media marketing may be a new player in the marketing world, but it sure seems like it’s here to stay.

Hence, in this day and age, participation in social media is not a “should”. It is a MUST.

And that is the truth about social media marketing. 🙂

Author Bio

Author Nicolas Finet

Nicolas Finet is the Co-founder of Sortlist. He attended Solvay Business School, where he earned his degree in Business Engineering (Management) with a Major in Marketing. You can visit his site at http://www.sort-list.co.uk/.